Ask five vendors what an AI chatbot costs and you will get five answers in five different units: per conversation, per resolution, per seat, per month. Underneath, the cost is driven by the same few things. Once you know them, comparing offers becomes simple.
What you are really paying for
An AI assistant costs money every time it writes a reply, because a language model runs for each answer. That is why almost every product prices by volume: messages, conversations or replies per month.
The other costs are how much information it can hold (often counted in pages or documents) and how many people on your team can use the inbox.
Estimate your message volume first
Look at how many enquiries you get today through your website, email and phone. A typical customer conversation is three to six replies from the assistant.
If you get 100 website enquiries a month and each conversation has four replies, you need roughly 400 AI replies a month. Add some headroom for growth and for visitors who would not have contacted you at all without a chat button.
Then count your knowledge
Count the pages on your website that matter to customers, plus the documents you would add: a price list, a menu, a policy. Most small businesses need between 10 and 100 pages.
You do not need to add your whole site. Blog posts from years ago rarely help; your services, prices and policies always do.
A worked example with Selo Assist
Selo Assist has a free plan with 30 AI messages and 10 knowledge pages a month, which is enough to test it on your own site. Paid plans start at €19 a month for 500 messages and 50 pages, then €49 for 2,000 messages, 200 pages and 3 team members, and €149 for 10,000 messages, 1,000 pages and 10 team members.
The business with 400 replies a month from the example above would fit the Starter plan. Only the assistant's replies count: messages your team sends and test chats in your dashboard are free.
The costs that are not on the price list
Setup time: with a modern assistant this is an afternoon of gathering information, not weeks of scripting. Ongoing time: a few minutes a week reviewing unanswered questions.
The cost of not having one is real too. An enquiry that waits until tomorrow often goes to the business that replied tonight.
